Fydell Edmund Garrett
| Fydell Edmund Garrett | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | July 20, 1865 |
| Died | May 10, 1907 (aged 41) Plympton, Devonshire |
| Occupation | Edited |
| Years active | 1895-1899 |
| Employer | Cape Times |
| Predecessor | J. Saxon Mill |
| Successor | Frederick York St Leger |
Fydell Edmund Garrett (1865–1907), best known as Edmund Garrett, was a British publicist, journalist and poet. He was returned as a Member of the South African Parliament in 1898 for Victoria East constituency.
Garrett was born on 20 July 1865, was fourth son of John Fisher Garrett, rector of Elton, Derbyshire, by his wife, Mary, daughter of Godfrey Gray. He was educated at Rossall school and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in the summer term of 1887 with a third class in classics. At the university he was more distinguished at the Union Debating Society, of which he was president in 1887, than in the schools. But though not taking a high degree, he gave in other ways early evidence of exceptional literary ability. Some of his translations from the classical poets, as well as his original pieces, contained in a small volume of undergraduate verse, Rhymes and Renderings, published at Cambridge in 1887, are remarkable not only for their grace and ease of expression but for a real poetic feeling.
On leaving the university Garrett joined the staff of the Pall Mall Gazette, and rapidly made his mark as a journalist by the force of his convictions — he was at this time a very ardent radical — the freshness of his style, and a happy gift of humour. But he had always been delicate, and after two years of work in London his health broke down. The first symptoms of the disease to which he ultimately succumbed, tuberculosis, became apparent, and he was sent for cure to South Africa. The remedy was for the moment apparently successful, and in any case this visit to South Africa in the winter of 1889-90 led to other consequences most important to his career.
South Africa was at that time entering the critical period of her history which terminated in the war of 1899-1902. Garrett, an ardent young man of exceptionally keen intelligence, not lacking in audacity, and of most winning manners and appearance, was quick to seize the salient points in an interesting situation and to make the acquaintance of the leading actors in the drama. He won the confidence of Sir Hercules Robinson, then high commissioner for South Africa, and made great friends with Cecil Rhodes, besides establishing more or less intimate relations with the leading politicians of Dutch and German origins respectively, Jan Hofmeyr and President Paul Kruger. The result was a series of articles in the Pall Mall Gazette, subsequently published as a book, In Afrikanderland and the Land of Ophir (1891, 2 edits.), which in 1912 was still the best description of South Africa in that momentous phase of its development.
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